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Two Holyoke High School FCCLA teams made up of 11 students qualified for the FCCLA National Leadership Meeting in Nashville, Tenn. July 5-11.

They earned their national-qualifying rank at the FCCLA State Leadership Conference held at the Denver Marriott Tech Center April 11-13.

Six Holyoke teams competed in six different Students Taking Action with Recognition events. In addition to the top two teams, two other teams won gold medals and placed in the top four, while another team earned silver medal status and another earned bronze medal status.

The theme of the state conference was “See What We See: Possibilities” with the tagline “Dream, Design, Deliver.”

Keynote speaker Scott Bachovich was a highlight for the conference attendees. His main message, delivered in a highly energized, humorous presentation, was that people get out of life what they put into it and that their fate is not predetermined by their circumstances or past events.

Another major presentation was “Rachel’s Challenge,” promoting bullying prevention and challenging participants to begin a “chain reaction” of kindness.

Many of the Holyoke chapter members were recognized in the opening session for completing a variety of FCCLA national programs. Those awards will be presented to students at the chapter awards program on Monday, April 29.

National qualifiers who earned first place and gold medals in their competition follow:

Marques Harvey and Dennis Amaya were awarded a bronze medal for the junior illustrated talk on gun control.

Chapter adviser Karen Pieper and Principal Susan Ortner served as event chairpersons for the parliamentary procedure event. Other sponsors included Bob and Brenda Brandt, as well as Dan Ortner.

Brenda and Bob Brandt receive Friends of FCCLA recognition at the State Leadership Conference in Denver last weekend.

Bob and Brenda each received special recognition at the awards banquet, receiving the State Friend of FCCLA Award in honor of all their hard work and contributions over the past several years.

“Both Bob and Brenda, along with The Holyoke Enterprise, have been wonderful supporters of our chapter for a long time, and members were happy to succeed in surprising them with this award,” said Pieper.

“Our community should be proud of our students as well. Each team left their competition rooms beaming, knowing that they had done their project justice,” added Pieper. “Throughout the conference, they worked hard, performed very well and represented Holyoke in a manner that we can all be proud.”